Background

The GaoMei TaiChung Wetland Ride was the 2nd effort after West Miaoli Shore Ride, to develop near 100 km Taiwan shore riding route.

It took me much more route iterations to plan this GaoMei TaiChung Wetland Ride, as TaiChung was a densely populated area, and careful road selections were needed to avoid as much traffic as possible.

Start: HouFeng Bike Path

To warm up in a cold, cloudy day, I decided to take the HouFeng Bike Path first and do a bit climbing. There was a running event going up in early morning.

Runner up!

Instead of doing the entire HouFeng Bike Path, in my GaoMei TaiChung Wetland Ride I left the bike path at here and crossed the river. There was no clear path onto the road, so you had to do some cyclocrossing.

The hills were at the other side of the river.

After crossing the river, we went onto a small climbing route. In the middle there was a path to see the northern part of ShiGang Dam (石岡水壩)

When you saw this, the path to the dam was on the right.

The northern part of ShiGang Dam preserved a damaged section from the 921 earthquake.

The damaged section caused by fault moving during the big earthquake.

At far middle was the ShiGang Dam.

HouLi Horse Ranch under renovation.

West Towards the Shore

After finishing our climbing section, in our GaoMei TaiChung Wetland Ride we began our long way going west toward the shore.

Still runners!

To avoid heavy traffic, our route went through many country side roads. The curvy country side roads not only limited the amount of traffic but forced them to slow down. Both were good for cyclists.